ROORKEE: Kunwar Pranav Champion is no stranger to controversies. One among the Congress legislators who rebelled against then CM Harish Rawat in 2016, Champion is the scion of the princely estate of Landaura that claims descent from the Panwar Gujjar dynasty. He has a fondness for body-building and wielding arms and his outspoken behaviour has often landed him in trouble.In 2014, a video of the four-time MLA shaking a leg with dancing girls while brandishing a pistol went viral. The same year, the legislator removed his shirt to show his muscles while attending a function at IIT-Roorkee. The trigger-happy Champion has also been accused of killing a crocodile in 2004 and for firing shots in the air during a body building show in 2009. He also fired at villagers in his constituency who were protesting against mining on the river bed in 2015.Champion first grabbed headlines in 2001 — a year before he won his first election from Laksar — when he thrashed a bus driver of a roadways bus who had refused to give a pass to his vehicle. Since then, the 51-year-old, who has won every elction he has contested because of the strong support base of his community, has never shied away from courting controversy. Although he has been quitened in the latest incident by the BJP, those who know him well say that the strongman politician — whose Gujjar support base would be needed by the saffron party — may have been chastened only for the time being.

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